How to Overcome a Fitness Plateau

Anyone who works out regularly has had encounters with reaching a fitness plateau.

It is easy to look at the progress made from the beginning stages of working out; results came fast and were easily noticeable. Once your workout has become a regular routine, making greater gains and seeing results are rarely noticeable. The body is designed to adapt to regular changes in order to withstand the regular routine. The biggest thing to realize about reaching a fitness plateau is that it is mostly a mental block. Here are a few ideas of what to do when you have reached a fitness plateau.

Rest

An important part of staying fit is living a healthy lifestyle; this means sleeping at least 6-8 hours a night regularly.

Attempting to burn both ends of the candle will keep your body from getting the rest necessary to allow for muscle growth. Especially for strength trainers, muscles in the body are repair and grow in your sleep. Therefore, less sleep equals less strength and muscle gains.

Eating Habits

Another aspect of living a healthy life is your eating habits.

By fueling your body with the right nutrients, your body will have the energy to build and sustain muscle growth or endurance. When the body goes without a healthy diet, it stores fat, loses muscle mass and reduces endurance. Before working out, the body works best with the right amounts of micronutrients, macronutrients and water. Without having a proper nutrition program, you will sabotage your workouts and be sluggish.

These two aspects will undoubtedly affect your workout routine and when addressed, will help you surpass your fitness plateau.

Mix It Up

As mentioned earlier, the body is made to adapt to changes it experiences on a regular basis. In order to avoid and help get pass a fitness plateau, there needs to be a change in your routine almost constantly. If you continue to do the same workout time and time again, you will experience a point where you’re comfortably doing weight that at one point you couldn’t do, however, you will see a noticeable decrease in any future gains.

By changing your routine, you are essentially shocking the body into doing things that it isn’t ready for. This creates muscle growth and stability. It is easier to see gains when your routine consists of exercises that attack muscles from different angles so the muscle gets a well-rounded workout. The shoulders, for example, have three different areas that can be developed for greater strength and size. By having several different shoulder exercises, you can continue to develop the muscle and avoid a fitness plateau.

The F.I.T. Method

Lastly, another way to surpass a fitness plateau is by adjusting your F.I.T. F stands for frequency, increasing or decreasing how often you exercise. I for intensity increase it or decrease the intensity of your workouts. T stands for the amount of time you workout for, increase it or decrease it. These are methods that will affect the body in a different way than it is use to and that will spark growth that will help you surpass your fitness plateau.

The next time you are going to go back to your same ol’ exercise routine, keep in mind that variety is the spice of life. Your body will continue to progress, and you will not get bored with your routines. Remember to use the F.I.T. method to see greater fitness results.